EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Coming off a win in its lone exhibition, the University of Evansville women's basketball team begins the 2018-19 regular season with a matchup with Murray State in Murray, Ky. at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.

"We talk every day and this whole summer and preseason about getting better each day and being ready for anything that we may face in these first couple games," said Aces women's basketball head coach Matt Ruffing. "These are the toughest games to scout as coaches; you don't know what teams are going to do, you don't know what personnel they're going to play and makes it tougher with Murray with, just like our lineup, a bunch of new players. You've just got to focus on you and do what we do best."

Evansville looks to build on an 81-80 exhibition win over Kentucky Wesleyan on October 28 in which freshman Makayla Wallace knocked-down a triple as the buzzer sounded. The Aces' 2018-19 team features seven newcomers along with six returning student-athletes from a season ago. In the exhibition win over Kentucky Wesleyan, 43 of the Aces' 81 points were scored by returners with 38 points coming from Evansville's group of freshmen.

"The main reason we played the exhibition game was to get our youth on the floor, in the moment, bright lights with fans in the stands just to kind of see how they would react to it and hopefully get the nerves out of the way so when we go to Murray here hopefully it's just another game for them," said Ruffing. "Hopefully that's the case and we know as a coaching staff it probably won't be as smooth as we like, but they didn't back down (against KWC) and they definitely rose to the occasion."
 

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UE at Murray State (Wednesday, 6:00 p.m.): Live Stats | ESPN+ | Murray State Website

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The Aces are looking to start their season in a similar fashion to how the 2017-18 season began. In last season's opener, the Purple Aces earned an 89-81 win over the Racers in the first game inside the newly renovated Meeks Family Fieldhouse. Wednesday night's meeting represents the 26th all-time contest between the Aces and Racers with Murray State holding a 20-15 advantage in the series. The Racers enter the season after an 11-19 campaign a season ago and have a roster in a similar state as the Aces. For the 2018-19 season, Murray State has eight newcomers on the roster, including six freshmen.

"It's hard to, but, I think, at the end of the day, you still want your kids to remember that success that we did have against Murray State even though, just like us, alot of the players are going to be new and different and they'll have a whole different lineup," said Ruffing on what can taken from last season's win over Murray State for Wednesday's game. "I think you take away a little bit of it and just how we were successful in that game."

To open the season, Evansville is a bit of a stranger to road season openers. Since the 2000-2001 season, the Aces have played just five season opening games on the road.. In those five previous games, UE is 3-2 with its last win on the road in a season opener coming in a 54-45 win over Ball State in Muncie, Ind. on Nov. 9, 2012.

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